Tonight, with the first alpine ski race, "my" Winter Olympic Games start. It has always been my favorite sports event, since when I was a kid; now I can't live the Games with the same magic aura of a kid but it's still a great moment when they arrive. Hope to see many events, even if the alpine ski races, my favorites, are in the middle of the night

Coming from a country that has probably seen snow once in the past 100 years I have very little interest in the winter games, I do watch a bit out of interests sake. Olympic sweeping (Curling) is fun, I marvel at the bravery of the Luge, skeleton and bobsleigh athletes with the speed they get up to, I play 'find the puck' when watching ice hockey and I appreciate the physicality of the game but I will only show full interest once the IOC brings in snow rugby to the winter games.

A nation the athletes of which are disqualified due to doping doesn't show interest in the Olympics, this is so surprising and clearly demonstrates the failure of these Games! If I was the chief organizer in PyeongChang I would close all and send the athletes to their home countries: "sorry but in Russia they don't follow the Games, it would be meaningless for us to continue. See you in four years!".The real lack of these Games, to me, is the poorness of spectators in the race venues and generally the absence of that "magic atmosphere" which characterized other editions of the Winter Games. Of course I hope they may improve before their end

NaBUru38 wrote:I have cable TV, and no channels air the Olympics. Instead, I must visit the olimpicos.marcaclaro.com website. Image quality is poor.

This is disappointing, but understandable. I'm a winter sports fan but usually I'm not interested in an event if there are not italian athletes. Unfortunately the Winter Games remain an affair closed to Europe, North America and a bit of Asia, both about athletes and spectators

I hope the second exam could contradict the first test result, even if I don't remember any case of second anti-doping test with a result different from the first.The story of the husband&wife winning an olympic medal is great, but the answers to the accusations I've read coming from the athlete ("He didn't want to release comments, at the moment", "Russian media are reporting that he believes his drink was spiked by a disgruntled teammate who did not make the Olympics"...) seem the answers of a culpable man. I hope (sincerely) to be wrong.

Accusing Wada is a childish behavior and certainly a non original one. In Italy most of the people is sure that famous cyclist Pantani was victim of a big conspiracy by the State and the mafia and that the track&field walker Schwazer, olympic winner but then twice accused of doping, was victim (I'm not joking) of a russian conspiracy. To yell at conspiracy is the easiest thing in the World

It seems illogic that he could have taken that medicinal but it seems (to me) even more illogic that someone in WADA could have dropped it in its urine.An italian newspaper wrote that Meldonium has almost no benefit for a male athlete but that it improves the general well-being and the sexual performance. Maybe he took the meldonium for non-sport use. It seems stupid before an event controlled by the anti-doping agency, I know, but as I said every alternative theory seems even more unlikely

Italy has been a bit disappointing as far as now: we may count on the whole Alpine arch but we have half of the medals of France, which owns just a portion of the Alpine arch. Norway is incredible, they fight for the victory in almost every winter sport

Canalina wrote:Italy has been a bit disappointing as far as now: we may count on the whole Alpine arch but we have half of the medals of France, which owns just a portion of the Alpine arch. Norway is incredible, they fight for the victory in almost every winter sport

Well, in France we have Pyrenees too, as Vosges and Central Massif (even if these two have less athletes, they do have some). And outside of alpine arch, we have too the Jura (even if it's part of the Alps).

I must admit our athletes are doing well for the moment, with few mistakes by top guys. No surprise neither vu second range guys, but who knows, it can happen...

Still, we miss good infrastructures. We are good in skiing and snowboarding, but nowhere in luge, skeleton, bobsleigh and various skating sports...

As for the governors, they're just happy if those german-speaking athletes win some medals. The people don't care a lot about winter sports. In the last decades the only winter athlete able to become popular has been Alberto Tomba. Peter Fill won two downhill world cups in recent years but I think that 90% of the italian people doesn't know who he is. Yes, this is because of the peculiar character of Tomba and because generally those athletes from Alto Adige (Sud Tirol) are not completely loved by the big public; they're not hated, of course, but they're perceived as not-so-much-italian (those strange surnames, that speaking with clear german accent...). Anyway there are not political worries; we know that probably those athletes love the german culture more than the italian one but the independence calls from Alto Adige are quite low nowadays. Personally I cheer for them as for every other italian athlete; so does the most of the other winter sports' fans.

Good job, but still not catching France canalina 1 gold, two silvers today. Another good day. For sure, much more easier than summer games... sadly it's in difficult timezone for us in Europe. And it will be again this in 2022